Just a couple ofwords about one point on the
Java i18n checklist posted a few days ago.
Localization preference should
not be driven by browser's Accept-Language header. Some comments:
- How do I know what localizations are available? What if I want the site in Russian but the site is only localized for English, German, and Spanish? A robust application would of course fallback to an available localization.
- Keep the localization preference as part of my user registration. Don't offer user registration? Set a cookie indicating my localization preference. At best I have to click a button to submit and change my localization preference. At worst I've got to fumble around the language settings in my browser. Every second I'm changing a browser preference to use your application is another second I'm not actually using your application.
- What if you can't change browser preferences to match available localizations? Let's say the application uses language "foo" in country "bar". You'd expect an Accept-Language header of foo-bar. OK. In Mozilla I can add foo-bar as a preferred language. Firefox only gives me the option to select from their list of languages. I'm sure there is a way to add a new language, but that's probably more steps than I really want to go through to use your application.
- What if every application used Accept-Language to drive localization preference? What if I prefer to use some applications in one language? So, I've got to re-arrange my localization preferences depending on which application I'm using. Bleeeeeeeeech.
Keep your application preferences with the application.
